Nomadic Tribes Mahasabha president Balagurumurthy has alleged that the political parties running the Union and the State governments have neglected 14 crore nomadic tribes in the country as the latter were not their vote banks.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Dr. Balagurumurthy said that according to the Balkrishna Renke Commission report, 62 per cent of nomadic tribes do not have voter identity cards, 31 per cent do not have shelter, 24 per cent of girls marry at the age of 12 and 51 per cent do not have burial grounds.
Stating that the State government had failed to carry out a proper enumeration of nomadic tribes, Dr. Balagurumurthy said that it has included Bestha community under nomadic tribes, though the community was not a nomadic tribe.
He demanded that the Union government form a department for nomadic tribes.
He said that the State government must allocate funds for the welfare of nomadic tribes in the budget.
He urged the State government to constitute a committee of experts, including anthropologists and sociologists, to indentify nomadic tribes and to prepare a list of nomadic tribes. He said that 62,000 people belonging to nomadic tribes did not have houses in the State and many women and girls from the nomadic tribes, according to him, had resorted to begging for a living.
Convention
He said that the first State-level two-day convention of nomadic tribes will be held at Thogarugunte in Sira taluk in Tumkur district from Saturday.
He said that more than 400 leaders of nomadic tribes from the State will participate in it.
The convention will educate the participants about the history of nomadic tribes, their struggle and rights. Political awareness will be created among them.
Dalit writer Devanur Mahadevu and the former chairman of Karnataka State Backward Classes Commission C.S. Dwarakanath will attend the meet.
Dalit leader Chelur Venkatesh and People’s Union of Civil Liberty president K. Dorairaju were present.
